LCCC Interviews

21st August 2017

McKay proud of Foxes

Leicestershire Foxes captain Clint McKay has seen a lot in his illustrious career – but Friday’s thrilling NatWest T20 Blast win at Notts Outlaws left him with plenty of memories.

The seamer has led from the front throughout the competition with nobody rivalling the 22 wickets that McKay took in the group stages.

McKay added two to his collection at Trent Bridge and they were key wickets too, those of big-hitters Riki Wessels and Dan Christian.

But, as always, McKay was modest about his achievements and instead had praise for the team including Cameron Delport, who recorded the fifth T20 century in Leicestershire’s history.

“The energy levels at a test match ground and the atmosphere at the end was outstanding. I’ll remember it for a long, long time,” said McKay.

“It was an exciting game and that is what T20 cricket is all about: big scores and the opposition trying to chase them down on a beautiful wicket. They have some class players and the boys held their nerve beautifully throughout the day.

“It was great to come out on top, we all knew what was at stake at the start of it and now we are off to the quarter-finals at Glamorgan.

“Luke [Ronchi] has been in unbelievable form all tournament but in T20 you won’t come off every week. Unfortunately for him he missed out but Cam [Cameron Delport] stepped up. Everyone knows how a good player he is in this format, he said he just needed some luck.

“He actually didn’t need any luck because he was pure class. The way Cam went about his innings was great and it was the first T20 hundred for the club for a long time.

“Cam has worked so hard in the nets and we knew it was going to be a matter of time until he got a big score. He’s a big game player and tonight he got the job done.”

McKay expected a close game despite the batsmen putting a good score on the board and was proud of the way the team went about their business.

He said: “It was always going to be tough, the average first innings score here is 206 over the last 18 months, so in perspective we were three runs short of average. But we felt we had enough if we bowled well and had a little bit of luck.

“The best thing is that guys are chipping in who haven’t bowled much in the tournament. Tom Wells has not bowled much but to bowl one over for five runs and take one wicket in the context of the game was an outstanding effort.

“Pretty much every chance was taken and that is a testament to how hard the boys have been working. It was great to see them being rewarded.”

* The Foxes are now preparing for the trip to Cardiff – if you’d like to travel to watch the game, there is a coach running from the Fischer County Ground on Wednesday afternoon. More details are available HERE.